Dating in 2018 appears to be more complex than a conversation, or the changing of a relationship status on Facebook, new research has revealed.

Dating someone, seeing someone, being official, or even being submarined are all phrases that 21st century daters should begin coming to terms with (if they want to avoid been friend-zoned further down the line).

Friends with benefits appeared to be one of the phrases that confused the nation the most, with over a quarter (27%) of those surveyed assuming this would mean dating an individual. Other confusions with this phrase included:

9% of people would consider friends with benefits as being in a relationship

More women than men would class friends with benefits as casual (an extra 11% more than men)

11% of men would class friends with benefits as being in a relationship

When it comes to ‘making out with someone’ misunderstandings continued, especially amongst older members of the public where 32% of people aged 65+ assumed that this would mean being in a relationship.

23% of people would class making out with someone as dating

19% of people 18-24 would class making out with someone as being in a relationship

32% of people aged 65+ think that making out with someone is being in a relationship

The dating dictionary was created to help those individuals that are maybe struggling to identify the current status of their relationship, examples from the dictionary include:

Breadcrumbing

What it means:

What people think it means:

Leading someone along

‘Cooking together’, ‘Being very picky’, ‘Covering up your emotions’

FBO

What it means:

What people think it means:

Facebook Official

‘French boyfriend’, ‘Friends, but only’ ‘Friends before others’

Jeremy Hinds, Sales Development Director at F.Hinds

“Here at F.Hinds we love to keep up-to-date with trends in the dating world, which is why we wanted to conduct this research. We wanted to find out exactly what dating looks like in 2018, if people are jumping into relationships quicker, or if people are more reluctant to settling down than they might have been in the past.

“Interestingly, it appears that there are a lot more stages to a relationship now than in previous years. With people using terms such as ‘friend-zoning’, ‘submarining’ and ‘breadcrumbing’ to describe the status of a relationship.

“We’re particularly interested to see how these terms continue to develop over the next few years!”